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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25199638">The Bridge and the Butterfly</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/gypsyweaver/pseuds/gypsyweaver'>gypsyweaver</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Tale of Crowns and Coins [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman &amp; Terry Pratchett</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Backstory, Creepy Sandalphon (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Flirting, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Japan, M/M, Multi, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Other, POV Crowley (Good Omens), Past Rape/Non-con, Pining, Pining Crowley (Good Omens), Protective Aziraphale (Good Omens), Protective Crowley (Good Omens), Sandalphon Being an Asshole (Good Omens), Spying, They/Them Pronouns for Beelzebub (Good Omens), Unrequited Crush, for Beelzebub</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:47:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,362</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25199638</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/gypsyweaver/pseuds/gypsyweaver</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On a trip to see the Sakura Festival at Hirosaki Park in the Aomori Province of Japan, Aziraphale and Crowley encounter their old bosses. Their best course of action would be to leave, post-haste. </p><p>But Crowley decides to follow. His old friend is actually enjoying the company of the Archwanker, and he is very interested in seeing how this plays out. </p><p>Which opens a whole suitcase from his collection of baggage--one that he'd kept sealed for a very long time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Beelzebub &amp; Crowley (Good Omens), Beelzebub/Gabriel (Good Omens)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Tale of Crowns and Coins [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684990</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Bridge and the Butterfly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDreamer240/gifts">TheDreamer240</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>CW: referenced/implied past rape, Sandalphon gloating about said rape, no smut this time</p><p>This is part 19 of a series! Apparently, people have been getting into one part or another not knowing that!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Shouldn’t we leave?” Aziraphale asked.</p><p>“Yes. We should. Definitely. That would be the best thing to do,” Crowley agreed. “Are we? No.”</p><p>Crowley was still in pursuit of Gabriel and Beelzebub, watching from as near as he dared in the crowd of tourists beneath the drizzling pink canopy. Beelzebub spoke excitedly of the trees, pointing out the differences between Weeping Cherry trees, and Double-Layered Cherry trees. They spoke of their travels in this part of Japan, how the castle and park and shrines had been built and had changed over the centuries. They spoke quietly, in an obscure dialect of Babylonian, to avoid listeners. But Crowley understood.</p><p>Gabriel listened gamely, and leaned over and stole bites of their spun sugar butterfly.</p><p>“That is definitely flirting,” Aziraphale said, and he seemed very displeased by it.</p><p>“What, Beelzebub?”</p><p>“No, Gabriel. He’s eating their food. That’s flirting.”</p><p>“How do you know that?”</p><p>“I’ve stolen a great many bites of your desserts over the years, especially after...inadvisable...levels of alcohol consumption,” Aziraphale explained.</p><p>Aziraphale was getting upset, and he tended to have problems with volume control when that happened. Crowley put up the necessary infernal miracles to keep people from listening in. Specific people. Their ex-bosses. Those people.</p><p>“It’s a playful show of dominance. He is definitely flirting,” Aziraphale continued. “And I am a bit cross about that, as he decided to put me in Hellfire for ‘fraternizing’!”</p><p>Crowley’s decision to use a miracle to keep anybody from hearing the angel was a wise one. He <em>was</em> a bit cross, and so he was a bit loud.</p><p>What a strange picture. Crossing a red lacquer bridge, framed with cherry blossoms, on the arm of a positively fuming Principality, in pursuit of a Prince of Hell costumed as a Maiko and an Archangel dressed as their bodyguard.</p><p>The Archangel Gabriel was eating and Prince Beelzebub was smiling.</p><p>Beelzebub was frankly joyful, and it had been a long time since Crowley had seen that. Millennia since his ex-boss had been anything but grumpy.</p><p>“D’you think they’re on a date?” he asked Aziraphale.</p><p>“I think Gabriel is,” the angel sniffed. ”But I can’t sense anything off of Prince Beelzebub, of course.”</p><p>Aziraphale clung to Crowley’s arm. The angel was afraid, and it humbled Crowley to realize that he was not afraid for himself. He was afraid for Crowley.</p><p>“Can you feel anything off of them?” Aziraphale asked.</p><p>“Angels are gone to us, but off of Beelzebub?” Crowley focused. “Fear. It’s barely there...but, I’m sorry, angel. After the Fall, I can only get negative stuff, and they don’t feel so negative.”</p><p>“So you can’t tell if they love him back,” Aziraphale said, sadly.</p><p>“Love him...what?”</p><p>“Back. He’s in love with them.” Aziraphale sniffed and popped a piece of popcorn in his mouth. “It’s Principality love, unfortunately. I’m not sure HOW he can love like that...I just assumed the others...if they could love...it would be...different.”</p><p>“What’s that supposed to mean, ‘Principality love’?”</p><p>“It’s...encompassing.” Aziraphale paused. “Crowley, my love for you is not a pure thing. It is dark and restless and possessive. Gabriel loves the same way. He wants from them what I want from you. His love is the same as mine. I thought the others...I thought that their love would be purer, somehow.”</p><p>“Purer?”</p><p>“Untainted by carnal needs, but...more than that...” he began. “The darkest part of me wants to keep you all to myself. Just lock you away somewhere safe, and be the only thing you ever saw or spoke to. To devote myself to you, in that way. To care for you to the exclusion of every other thing.”</p><p>Crowley admitted to himself that the angel made a tempting offer. But he was not interested in becoming a (completely) housebound snake. As for Gabriel, he doubted that anyone had the ability to tame the Lord of the Flies. That seemed a fast way towards losing an eye, or a wing, as they saw fit.</p><p>But the rest of Aziraphale’s words caught up to him.</p><p>“Carnal needs?” he asked. “That wanker is capable of lust?”</p><p>“Mm...yes. We all are. Nature follows form, and he’s had a cock for long enough to develop appetites. Which may prove dangerous for Prince Beelzebub, if they do not reciprocate.”</p><p>“Do you think they do?” Crowley asked. “Reciprocate?”</p><p>“They do not. They’re standing too far away, and though they seem to be enjoying pointing out the differences in the cherry trees, they’re nervous.”</p><p>“You can feel that?”</p><p>“I can see it. They’re standing too far apart from Gabriel,” Aziraphale said. “I’ve seen love over the centuries. That’s not love.”</p><p>“Think it might be a bit hard for them, actually. Love.” Crowley paused. In his memory, he was standing in the corner of Hell that served as Beelzebub’s office, being jostled by the demons moving around him as he held out a basket. <em>“Hey...um...here’s some cheese. It helps.” </em></p><p>Back in the present, he pressed his face into Aziraphale’s shoulder and mumbled “It’s probably hard for them, after Sandalphon...”</p><p>“Sandalphon?” Aziraphale stopped. “When he was Elijah?”</p><p>“Yeah...?”</p><p>“So, Prince Beelzebub? That’s who he...attacked?”</p><p>The world may not have tilted on its axis, but Crowley definitely felt a wobble. “You know?”</p><p>Aziraphale sighed. “Gabriel used to have me come up to Heaven to give my reports. It was just after...they rearrange things, periodically. Teambuilding, or something of that nature. Well, I wasn’t given the new plans. Sandalphon had gained Gabriel’s old office, and I saw that the sigil on the nameplate was wrong. I was standing there, looking a fool--no doubt--as I tried to figure out where they had put Gabriel. The door was open a hair, and Sandalphon was speaking to Metatron...I heard something that I should not have heard...”</p><p>“What did you hear?” Crowley demanded.</p><p>“Sandalphon said...that he had no regrets. That he had made the demon useful...” Aziraphale gripped the lapel of Crowley’s leather jacket between thumb and forefinger, rubbed at it like a worry stone. “He said that Metatron was fretting for nothing, that nobody knew anything. He said that he woke up with her blood and milk on his tongue--and this next part...I remember word for word. Sandalphon said, ‘The great pity about it is that she was not fresh.’” Aziraphale paused. “I scuttled away. I found Gabriel and gave my report.”</p><p>“Did you tell Gabriel what you heard?”</p><p>“Crowley, you are the only soul that I ever told what I heard,” Aziraphale said, staring at his feet. “There was a time, a very long time ago, when I concerned myself with Gabriel’s safety. That information was caustic. I didn’t know whom Sandalphon had attacked, and telling Gabriel when the Metatron himself was involved?” He shook his head. “No. I assumed Hell would handle it.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Crowley growled. “Well, they didn’t. And I lost my best friend over it.”</p><p>“You were close? With Lord Beelzebub?”</p><p>“I was. Once.”</p><p>In the days of Ekron, there was no creature he loved more than Beelzebub. The clueless angel from Eden and the Flood was a pleasant enough diversion, but he walked the world with Beelzebub. Clever and capable, joyful and kind as they walked amongst the humans. He’d been quite taken with them, but they did not reciprocate. He could guess why.</p><p>He knew who their old master was. Raphael was not known for his kindness, nor his mental stability. Their days in the Garden weighed heavily upon them.</p><p>Ah, but so did his. So did his.</p><p>They spent centuries working together on the massive polytheism project. Beelzebub inspired a number of insect cults and cat cults. Crowley was worshiped as dozens of versions of the Serpent of Wisdom.</p><p>They were friends, good friends. And then, Beelzebub was gone. For about a year.</p><p>And he looked. He looked and he looked. Just not hard enough.</p><p>In the days and months and years after they returned, they faded away. The person that they had been was replaced by a them-shaped stone, incapable of feeling, never outside of Hell for more than a few hours.</p><p>Except, apparently, to gallivant around Japan. (Understandable. Angels never did keep a close eye on the Far East, and with the <em>kimono</em> and make-up, they were fairly unrecognizable.)</p><p>This broken Beelzebub was too far away for Crowley to speak to, to offer comfort. Hell was not private--it seethed with people. They would never be able to talk in a place like that. Of course not.</p><p>Prince Beelzebub had no chance of keeping their position if the others knew what had happened to them. Crowley knew, in spite of never being told. He recognized the signs, and he could guess what an angel would do with unfettered access to a demon.</p><p>He did not think that Sandalphon would take their milk. That was messed up, even by Heaven’s standards.</p><p>Crowley stared at the two of them. The Archangel, absolutely (understandably) besotted, and his ex-boss keeping a prudent amount of space between the two of them. But, Beelzebub smiled and laughed when they caught Gabriel stealing bites from their butterfly. They kept laughing as Gabriel started aggressively eating the sugar sculpture. And then they joined him. Eating as much as they could.</p><p>But Crowley saw them flush after they saw that Gabriel’s little finger fell over their hand when he’d grabbed the paper stick.</p><p>He wanted to say, “Please, give this a chance, if it keeps you warm.”</p><p>He wanted to say, “I’d put up with this wanker to get my friend back.”</p><p>He wanted to say, “This world looks so different when you’re in love.”</p><p>Maybe he would have said one (or all) of those things if he’d been alone. But he was not alone, and they had not noticed Aziraphale and himself staring. The two of them had eaten the huge butterfly down to a small fluff of pinky-purple spun sugar at the top of the stick.</p><p>Aziraphale and Crowley were close enough to hear, not that it was hard. Gabriel was loud.</p><p>“Now what’re you going to do, huh?” he asked. “You’re too short to reach!”</p><p>“Am I?” Beelzebub returned.</p><p>They were smirking.</p><p>They were FLIRTING.</p><p>Beelzebub reached up and delicately plucked the last bit of spun sugar from the stick with their hands.</p><p>“Now what are YOU going to do, huh?” they asked.</p><p>Gabriel frowned at this, dropped the stick, and grabbed their wrist. They tried to pull away, laughing, but he was too strong. He lowered his lips and began to eat the candy from their hand.</p><p>Beelzebub watched him do it, escape apparently forgotten, flushing as he sucked the sugar from their fingers.</p><p>Gabriel was flirting, too.</p><p>“I win,” he said. He was smiling, and just as flushed as they were.</p><p>Beelzebub rolled their eyes. “In six thousand years, it was bound to happen once.”</p><p>Their tone was light. No bite to it at all.</p><p>“I <em>still</em> won,” he said, holding their wrist.</p><p>His gaze was intense over the sunglasses. Beelzebub was yielding.</p><p>“Kiss them...” Crowley growled, just under his breath. “This is your moment...just do it...”</p><p>Crowley’d had a moment. Once, and he didn’t take it.</p><p>Sitting together on a balcony of the palace that the humans had built for him, the grand temple of Set. They were watching the sun go down, and roasting meat and vegetables over a small brassier. The evening star was out, and a smattering of other early risers. They were comparing the star maps of the Babylonians and the Egyptians. They both pointed at the same star at the same time (the one that the humans would someday agree to call Betelgeuse), and their hands had collided.</p><p>He remembered taking their hand in his, lacing their fingers together. He remembered those wide, crystal blue eyes falling on his. Their mouth was slightly open. Watching him, and waiting for his next move. Their respective positions in Hell were, in this moment, forgotten.</p><p>Crowley had wanted to pull them close, wanted to lay a kiss on that open and eager mouth.</p><p>Instead, he kissed their knuckles, and handed them a skewer of meat and root vegetables.</p><p>They might’ve told him no. Probably would have. It wouldn’t have worked out, regardless. They weren’t Aziraphale. He would have eventually hurt them.</p><p>Worse, all of his love would not have saved them from Sandalphon. He would have lost them to that misery, to the slow descent into Hell’s apathy. Crowley probably would have gone mad from his grief.</p><p>But Gabriel...</p><p>Wanker though he was, he had something Crowley never had.</p><p>Recourse against any angel who decided to harm Beelzebub.</p><p>The moment passed, and Gabriel had not acted. They were both laughing, and Beelzebub had taken his arm.</p><p>Aziraphale gasped.</p><p>“Alright, angel?”</p><p>“It’s suffocating...what he feels. It’s absolutely suffocating, Crowley.”</p><p>The angel’s voice was tender. Pained.</p><p>“They’ll figure it out,” Crowley said. “Or they won’t.”</p><p>He pressed his face into Aziraphale’s shoulder. Crowley felt drained, thinking about his shitty past. His ex-boss, who might have become his lover--if things had fallen differently. His ex-friend who he wanted to shake until they were willing to give love a chance.</p><p>If Beelzebub was open to it, love could heal their time in Ekron. Love could even handle their time in Eden.</p><p>He felt so weak, suddenly. Aziraphale was holding him, and the angel’s strength was a comfort.</p><p>Beelzebub and Gabriel wended their way towards the tea pavilion. Crowley decided not to follow.</p><p>Let Beelzebub linger, unsure, until they could decide. Or until the Archangel decided for them. The Archangels who didn’t Fall were like that, as far as Crowley could tell.</p><p>His own love, precious as the air he breathed, would comfort him. He needed it.</p><p>He needed to know if Heaven’s poison had slipped into his angel. He needed to know if Aziraphale would have preferred him to be pure.</p><p>“Take me back to the hotel, angel,” he murmured into Aziraphale’s shoulder. “I’m tired.”</p><p>Aziraphale’s fingers on the back of Crowley’s neck felt very good. “Of course, dear,” he murmured. “Let’s go.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For TheDreamer240, who has been following this from the beginning! Thanks for your kind support!</p><p>As I said in the beginning notes, this is part 19 of a series, and those parts should be regarded as chapters. I did a series instead of a single work because it helps me see who's reading what, and it lets me gift individual chapters to people.</p><p>About the cherry blossom festival in Hirosaki Park:</p><p>  <a href="https://www.en-aomori.com/culture-034.html">From the Aomori Prefecture tourism page</a></p><p>  <a href="https://sakura.hirosakipark.jp/en">From the Hirosaki Park page</a></p><p>Crowley gives Beelzebub cheese because it causes our brains to release serotonin and dopamine. Also, in my headcanon, he helped humans to invent it, and is quite proud of it.</p><p>Principalities have some serious goblin energy, IMHO. So that's why Aziraphale loves in the way that he does. Gabriel has no such excuse. He's just a bit of an unblinking madman, and tends towards obsession.</p><p>I think it's important to show that Beelzebub may have thought that they were fairly resilient after Ekron, but outsiders had other opinions. At least, those who cared enough to notice.</p><p>Comments and kudos are super sugoi! Concrit welcome!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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